Long lines not a problem in Midland, rest of Texas

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, November 4, 2008

From Staff and Wire Reports

Record early voter turnout helped lead to shorter lines on Election Day in Midland County and many of the largest counties across Texas, officials said Tuesday.

In Midland County, election officials reported lines of up to 50 people when polls opened at 7 a.m. at places like Lee Freshman. Otherwise, election judges at polling places throughout the city reported, a steady flow of voters trickled in each hour, but most finished the voting process in just a few minutes.

Across the state there were some hour-long waits and voter traffic was steady, but reports of problems were scarce for election administrators in the state's most populous counties.

"It's amazing," said Jacque Callanen, elections administrator for Bexar County, home to San Antonio. "There's happy people out there."

Reports of voting problems throughout the state were few. The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund called Bexar County after receiving reports that an election judge told two voters they would have to wait 90 minutes to get provisional ballots and that they should just vote in the next election.

Luis Figueroa, the advocacy group's legislative staff attorney, said the situation was worked out with officials, who called it a miscommunication. Callanen was unaware of the problem but said anyone who suggested waiting until the next election was "just being facetious, I think."

In San Patricio County near Corpus Christi, there was a dustup over election signs posted overnight at more than 15 polling places. The signs said "Vote Republican Here" in Spanish on one side and English on the other.

Democrats complained that the signs were misleading and made people think only Republicans were allowed to vote at the site. The Secretary of State ruled that the signs must come down and the sheriff helped enforce it, a county official and a Democratic Party official said.

"The idea was basically to trick people that only Republicans vote at this location, not Democrats," said Christian Archer, who is running the re-election campaign for state Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi. "We had people calling our headquarters saying: 'I went but that was where Republicans vote. Where do I vote?'

San Patricio Republican County Party Chairman Bob MacDonald said the signs were an attempt to encourage everyone to vote. He said a list of precinct numbers were attached to each sign.

In retrospect, MacDonald said, they should have left off the word "Republican."

"I just want it to be fair," MacDonald said. "I want everybody to vote, whether Republican or Democrat…"

Signs were also posted at each precinct location in Midland County alerting voters not to wear political paraphernalia or campaign for a particular candidate or party within 100 feet of the door to the voting booth. Election judges, though, reported they had no compliance issues during the day.

Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade projected 68 percent turnout among the 13.5 million registered voters in Texas. Andrade's prediction is 12 percentage points higher than 2004 and follows heavy early voting turnout across the state.

"Things are going very well," said Ashley Burton, an Andrade spokeswoman.

In Midland County, 33,000 voters of the 74,499 registered voted early, with some precincts reporting more than 50 percent of voters had participated early. The just more than 44 percent who voted early broke 2004 records of about 40 percent.

In Dallas County, where 477,455 of nearly 1.3 registered voters cast early ballots, there were few reports of long lines.

"It seems like what we're seeing today is that more people voted early than before," said Bruce Sherbet, Dallas County elections administrator. "It's a little disappointing. We were hoping that Election Day would be comparable to early turnout. We were ready for it."

Hector de Leon, a spokesman for the Harris County clerk's office, said there were few long lines in the Houston area, which has about 1.9 million registered voters.

"The overall turnout may be historic, but the election day turnout might be comparable to what we've seen in the past three presidential elections," de Leon said.

Amy Hellman, 54, an educator who runs a home-based business, dashed in and out of a polling place at Sugar Creek Country Club in Sugar Land, a suburb south of Houston, where there were no lines on Tuesday morning. It took less than 15 minutes for most people to vote.

El Paso County, where about 29 percent of their 387,167 registered voters voted early, saw waits of up to 45 minutes early in the day.

In Midland, voters said they were grateful lines never reached that long.

"It was very easy," said Velma Brooks. "More easy than I thought it would be."